


Mother's Love

by aj_books



Series: BMC One Shots (Probably Rich Centric) [2]
Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Britton Smith!Jake Dillinger, F/F, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Post-Squip, Tiffany Mann!Jenna Rolan, Will Roland!Jeremy Heere, but this made an angsty idea in my head, gerard answered my tweet asking who richs squip was, so deal with it, so i know who i wrote is not canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-13 20:56:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16025834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aj_books/pseuds/aj_books





	Mother's Love

Jake woke with a start, blinking a few times, head shaking as he tried to understand the abruptness in his awakening. Licking his lips he shifted on the couch, arm falling to hang off as he started to drift off again. 

A pounding on the door.

That’s what woke him up.

He grumbled and sat up, chip crumbs falling from his chest. Brooke and Jenna had come over for their weekly movie night but had to leave for work early the next morning. Checking his phone he groaned, realizing he forgot to plug it in and now it was dead. From his dizziness he assumed it was between 3 and 3:30.

He stood, rubbing his eyes as he made his way to the front door.

Under normal circumstances he would be terrified, anyone knocking on his door this late/early was clearly going to kill him. But he was tired (and maybe a bit tipsy) so he wasn’t one to make a smart decision.

He opened the door, barely able to adjust to the outside lamp light before he got hit in the chest. Looking down he saw light brown hair, damp from the rain drizzling down. 

“Rich?” His voice was groggy, stepping back to wrap his arms around the shaking boy. “Hey, what’s up dude?”

Rich just shook his head and Jake understood, adjusting the two enough for him to be able to shut and lock the door. “Let’s go sit down, I have blankets and pillows down here. We can relax or cuddle and sleep yeah?”

He just nodded, burying himself into Jake’s arms further, but allowing the two of them to move to Jake’s oversized couch.

The two plopped down, Jake laying back enough to let Rich lay on his chest. The TV volume was on the lowest setting, old Disney movies rotating through- it looks like Geek Charming was playing, but without his contacts he couldn’t tell. 

“You want a drink or something to eat?” Rich merely shook his head, “Mkay, hey, why don’t you take your jacket off? It’s soaked.” 

He sat up enough, shimmying the sorry excuse of a jacket off before folding it and laying it on the arm of the couch. He hesitated a bit, before shaking his head and laying back on Jake’s chest. Minutes passed by with the two laying in silence on the couch, Rich slowly relaxing, the tension leaving his body as he warmed up and dried off. Jake didn’t mind, how are you supposed to care about damp clothes on your couch when your best friend walked to your place at 3 in the morning?

He knew Rich would speak when he was ready, there was no need to rush him. More time passed and Jake looked down, checking to see if he fell asleep. Eyes stared blankly ahead, and he sighed quietly. He hated seeing his best friend like this.

Rich cleared his throat and Jake’s attention snapped back. “I just...sorry...I had a nightmare.” His voice was so unlike his normal confident self, the loud laughs and unfiltered lisps. 

Jake knew days and nights like this happened, nightmares filled with the SQUIP, nightmares where he would lose his friends. Jake leaned forward enough to lay his check on Rich’s head. “I used to get nightmares all the time...mostly after my parents left.” Rich shifted to look up at him.

“Nightmares are normal, they’re our brains way of processing all the horrible bullshit we deal with.” He shrugged, “I still get some, some deep, somewhere they seem like the butt joke of a comedy movie.”

Rich snorted. “Yeah well...mine is the same one as last time.”

Jake frowned, voice soft, “Hey. You know we’ll never let the SQUIP come back for neither you nor Jere. We all have so much Mountain Dew Red we could become billionaires if we sold it all. Which we would never. We’ll be buried with this shit.”

Rich stifled his laugh, shifting a bit to get comfy. Jake’s hand began absentmindedly playing with Rich’s hair, both boys relaxing in the comfortable silence.

“Um...if you don’t mind my asking- who- what was yours? Your SQUIP, that is.” Jake closed his eyes.

“Paul Rabil.”

“Paul Rabil? The - “

“Yeah the lacrosse player. He’s an inspiration dude!” Rich and him laughed a bit, “And I had bit of a crush on him for a while...he was my pan awakening  _ and  _ someone I wanted to face off to one day.”

“He’d kick your ass.”

“I’d thank him.”

Jake’s burning curiosity wanted him to ask who Rich’s was. But he knew the SQUIP in general was a sensitive topic.

His voice was quiet, all emotion void as he played with his fingers. “Mine uh...mine was my mom.”

Jake’s heart dropped and rose to his throat, blood running cold as he heard this. “It - “

“Yeah,” He frantically nodded, “Looked just like her before she- uh- left. All the details, from the freckles on her nose to the scent of her perfume. Course I freaked out when I saw her- I hadn’t seen her in so long. I thought I was hallucinating, or I had died. I could have, I took a random pill from a creepy Mr. Heere look a like in a PayLess.”

He said nothing, he knew this was something Rich needed to vent out. “It mimicked her voice so well too- her, she always had this way she would say my name. And this dumb nickname I hated as a kid- Richy-Ticki-Tavi. God, when it said that I- I started crying. That was when it shocked me, and I realized it was  _ not  _ my mom. I was so mad at first dude, I felt like...this was some form of torture. But she would tell me what to do and what to say in that stupid motherly voice of hers,” His voice grew angry as the tears began to spill over, “And when I messed up it would shock me, it would blame h-her death on me. I would have nightmares, it got to the point I- I knew what it wanted me to do and would do it before it even asked.”

Jake held him closer, cuddling the trembling boy, hand rubbing his back. “I was so attached to- to  _ her _ and her voice and her stupidly soft eyes I missed and- God Jake, it made me a monster. All because I couldn’t say no to a fucking computer disk - “

“Hey no,” Jake sat them up, “Not because you couldn’t say no. Rich, that thing tortured you. Physically, mentally, and emotionally. What you did was not your fault. You were scared and in pain. I’m so sorry you had to go through that,” He cupped Rich’s cheeks in her hands, “None of this happened because you ‘were weak’, that’s bullshit. You survived it’s torture, you made it through the damn floppy dick’s bullshit.” He kissed Rich’s nose softly.

A beat passed before Rich launched himself into Jake’s chest, face buried in his tank top. He wasn’t sure if Rich was crying, but he knew he was clinging to him with such strength he was concerned for his ribs. Not more than he was concerned for his friend though.

His hands began rubbing his back once more as he settled backwards, “I know there are times when you begin to doubt yourself, when you think you’re not truly apart of this group, and I hate that that... _ thing  _ made you feel this way more. I hate that you felt this way before. But nothing, and I mean  _ nothing,  _ will ever make you not apart of this group. You’re Jeremy’s go to for any bi panics and any deep secret holder, you and Mica have this weird bonding friendship that involves getting high and playing games, Chloe would not  _ survive  _ without you, and Brooke would end up murdering someone if you weren’t here. Who would Jenna have for her spa nights and weekly cuddling and recharging sessions? Christine needs her other, in her words not mine so don’t punch me later,  _ ‘Short bi buddy who I need every day of my life!’  _ And dude, I need you in my life all the time for anything. You mean so much to all of us.”

Now Rich was crying. Jake felt bad for being the reason for the tears, but now he at least knew they were good tears. “God, Jakey D. you’re a damn sap.”

Jake snorted as Rich settled down closer to Jake, body still trembling lightly. “Only for you buddy...only for you…”

The road to recovery was always long, and it had twists and turns that sometimes throws you off. But they would get through it together, and yeah it would be hard and difficult, but by God they would get through it. If not for themselves, for the,  _ “sweet stories to tell our group grandkids in the future dude!”  _

God Jake was in love with an idiot. 


End file.
